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Semiconductors - Monday, April 25, 2005

T-RAM Semiconductor

HQ: San Jose, CA

Founded: 1998

Management: Kenneth Young is President & CEO. Most recently he was GM & VP at Alliance Semiconductor where he had P&L responsibility for the SRAM division. Founder/CTO Sharif Nemadi developed the basic technology while he was a student in Iran.

Investors: In April 2005, T-RAM raised a third round of funding totaling $40M. Total funds raised by the company are $86M. Investors are: CenterPoint Ventures, InterWest Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Tallwood Venture Capital, and US Venture Partners.

Business Model: T-RAM is a fab-less semiconductor memory company that promises higher-density on a chip than any other technology on the market. With the latest round of funding, T-RAM is finally ready to commercialize the technology. There are innumerable applications that require higher density memory - iPod-type devices come to mind.

Competitors: Hynix, Samsung, Micron, and many others.

Dirt: Memory companies are as dull as insurance companies. However, the next consumer product that is as exciting as the iPod will only get there thanks to advances in memory. Unfortunately, breakthroughs in memory are few and far between. T-RAM looks to have created technology that will give birth to a new generation of products.